Question: At our death can we be reborn, find again the people who are dear to us, who have died and are in another life?
Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Yes, we can. As I explained yesterday, it’s through our kamma that we are related. The people to whom we are dear, or are dear to us: We have lots of kamma with them, so we’re likely to meet them again. ~ “The Karma of Mindfulness: The Buddha’s Teachings on Sati & Kamma”
Is this a view that is commonly held, and are there pertinent references to it in the EBTs?
I thought I was reading “The Watchtower” for a moment there. Thank-you.
In AN 4.55 the Buddha instructs a married couple how they can create kamma to be reborn together again and again in subsequent lifetimes.
Householders, if wife and husband want to see each other in both this life and the next, they should be equals in faith, ethical conduct, generosity, and wisdom.
Also, not exactly EBT, but see any number of Jataka tales!
The same sutta can be taken to suggest that it might not be easy IMO. There is another sutta which suggests that were one might land, in terms of the next birth, can be described in terms of a stick being thrown and it might land on its front or end of middle, its hard to say where one will be reborn. So that chances of being reborn with the same people maybe slim, if the same kind of karma hasn’t been performed. However there is some indication that in this long journey through samsara we have come across the same people repeatedly as well.
Don’t worry, most people you meet are people who were dear to you, people who died and went on to another life.
Near Sāvatthī. There the Blessed One said: “From an inconceivable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. A being who has not been your mother at one time in the past is not easy to find.… A being who has not been your father.… your brother.… your sister.… your son.… your daughter at one time in the past is not easy to find.
“Why is that? From an inconceivable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries—enough to become disenchanted with all fabricated things, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released.” - SN 15:14
